What if life was like the NFL Draft?

I like the NFL Draft. As a business, it presents an interesting hiring model: The more potential you show in college, the more money you can make on your first contract. And in order to keep making good money, you have to keep performing. Every year there are those that, for one reason or another, never live up to their billing and there are those that surprise even the most experienced talent evaluators. But what would happen if a draft existed for all college graduates?

Obviously, we would need to make a few concessions in order for this experiment to work. Graduates would need to know the list of potential employers based on their chosen major. Pay scales would have to be defined and made public. Determining a company draft order could get tricky. Giving the number 1 pick (in this case, the opportunity to hand pick one of the brightest minds in their respective area of knowledge) based on company profits, or lack thereof, might reward poor business practices, incompetent management or “creative bookkeeping.” But let’s assume that we could determine a draft order, each company selecting graduates had the financial means to pay them as well as a pressing need to fill positions.

Can you imagine how different the college mindset might be? How different might students perform inside the classroom and behave outside of the classroom knowing that their future employer has scouts on their payroll. Scouts that not only scour transcripts and test scores, but also question professors, former bosses, university officials and, in some cases, a bartender or seven, all in an attempt to define character, work ethic, potential, etc. And let’s not forget, these students would know from Day One what they’re “playing” for and how one, tiny misstep could literally cost them thousands of dollars or more. I know that sounds like a massive amount of pressure but it seems to work out well for diamonds.

So, would a system like this immediately bankrupt campus bars and leave countless garages and living rooms across college towns devoid of activity except for the lone tumbleweed that rolls across a sad, dilapidated beer pong table? Probably not. And obviously, the NFL draft system isn’t a perfect deterrent in keeping some knuckleheads from engaging in “knuckleheadedness.” The allure of big money and stardom that comes with being an NFL draft pick hasn’t kept some very promising, college athletes from screwing up but we’ll never know how many stay out of trouble because they’re mature enough to see what’s at stake.

Another advantage of a college job draft is the incentive for students to graduate on time, or dare I say, early. The sooner you graduate, the sooner you’re eligible for the draft. Money talks and as a man that’s two months away from being 18 years away from counting the zeros on a college tuition bill, I hope, at that time, it screams at my kid so that tuition stops egocentrically screaming at me. I understand that this incentive already exists in a quiet, “I’ll just sit over here in the corner and wait for you to figure out my importance until your third senior year” kind of way but I think most parents would agree that anything that can light a fire underneath college students is a good thing. So we’ll make it a big event, just like the NFL draft, with coverage from all the major networks starting months in advance complete with ridiculous analysis so that every student knows their competition and what kind of money is on the line.

All of these assumptions, modifications and suppositions required to make this scenario remotely possible just goes to show that trying to compare real life economy and business with the sports world is almost impossible. But it sure is fun to try.

What would your draft look like?